Breakout B: The Science of Program Mapping and DNA of Meta-Majors Rebecca Eikey, Guided Pathways Task Force, Chemistry, College of the Canyons Janet Fulks, Guided Pathways Faculty Lead, ASCCC Capacity Building Biology, Bakersfield College

Program Mapping & Meta Majors How do you get started with mapping programs and creating meta-major organization? What are the guiding principles to help colleges build relevant groupings for meta-majors? How can this organization serve the students and the college? How can this process clarify pathways for the college and student support efforts? What are some of your main questions?

The Scientific Method Begin with Observations

observations

Observation: First Screen of Majors

Observation: Ninth Screen of Majors

Observation: List of Majors with a Disclaimer

What can be done to help students decide? Question What can be done to help students decide?

Would Meta-Majors Be Beneficial for Students in Selecting a Major? Agriculture, Nutrition and Culinary Arts Business Arts, Humanities, and Design Education Health Sciences Industrial and Transportation Tech Public Safety Social, Behavioral and Human Services STEM Personal and Career Exploration

Would Program Mapping Help Clarify Requirements? Middlesex Community College in MA

Do Background Research What is a meta-major? What is program mapping? How are they related? What are other colleges around the nation doing?

What are Meta-Majors? Groupings of Related Majors “Areas of Interest” or “Areas of Overlap” or “Major Pathways”

Meta-Majors or Career Pathways

City Colleges of Chicago

What is Program Mapping? Academic or Program Mapping Maps sequence of courses required to complete the degree Term-by-term or Unit-based Helps students understand degree requirements and plan accordingly

Why Have Meta-Majors? Intentional Alignment with: Informed Choices High School Pathways Example: San Diego County’s California Career Pathways Trust Grant in Advanced Manufacturing Transfer & Professional School Requirements Example: Santa Monica College’s Law Pathway Job Market & Careers Core requirements – e.g. STEM math and science Informed Choices

Santa Monica Colleges’ Law Pathway

Florida College System

Meta-Majors with Program Mapping Better Guidance at All Levels Helps to Find Majors Exploration Demonstrates the Starting and Ending Points Informs Choices Reduce Excess Units Related Careers and Salaries Register for the Correct Math and General Education Math Pathways – Depends on Major

Graduating in Math at Bakersfield College an unguided pathway research project Sample Pathways with Program Mapping

Common Elements of Meta-Majors & Program Mapping: Each meta-major is clearly mapped to programs and careers. General Education (GE) core courses are mapped with meta-majors. Connections with GE courses and meta-majors and majors are made clear. Sometimes electives are aligned with meta-majors. Advising and student services are aligned with the student’s meta-major. Math quantitative reasoning course is aligned with programs within the meta-majors. Meta-majors may be aligned with local labor market demand.

Creating meta-majors with program mapping will benefit students. Hypothesis: Creating meta-majors with program mapping will benefit students.

Which comes first, meta-majors or program mapping? Design the experiment Which comes first, meta-majors or program mapping?

Design Principles in Creating Meta-Majors & Program Mapping Who will lead the creation & implementation? Committee? Taskforce? Who should be involved? How do you bring in student voice? Which other stakeholders need to know about this? How does the college’s broader environment (e.g., state or college policy) support or inhibit meta-majors? How will the meta-majors and program mapping be communicated to students? Questions From Jobs for the Future

Skyline College

Analysis to Support Creating Meta-Majors & Program Mapping What is the full scope of programmatic offerings at the college? Do the college’s programs align to the local labor market and/or university transfer partner? Which general education courses align best to each meta-major? What are the common courses across all programs? What is the required core within this meta-major that allows students to branch off into various majors without losing any credits? Which courses will introduce students to relevant faculty and career information early in their academic careers? Which courses might not be included, and who needs to be involved in that decision? Questions From Jobs for the Future

Programs that Require Photography Courses for Degree, Certificate, and/or Transfer Kumu Map of Programs & Courses Vizualization

Student Course Taking Behavior Programs with the Greatest Percentage of its Students Successfully Completing Photography Courses who are not Fine Art Photography program completers

Additional Considerations How does the college communicate meta-majors to prospective students? Will mapped pathways be presented to students as their default registration? How will the college present mapped pathway requirements to students? How does the college help students make informed choices about meta-majors? How does meta-majors placement align with English, math & ESL placement? Do orientations, first-year experience courses, and student success courses align to the meta-major? Photo data – example from COC

Other Thoughts on Designing Meta-Majors & Program Mapping Many variations and possibilities Bringing in the student voice Student Focus groups Classwork Surveys Iterative process Refinement over time

First Attempt at Bakersfield College Focused on Outcomes and Jobs

Refinement of the Renegade Road Map

exploration? Can students explore?

Arizona State University https://www.aacc.edu/programs-and-courses/credit-and-degree-seekers/explore/ - starting fall 2018

How can this organization serve the students and the college? Results How can this organization serve the students and the college?

What are the Outcomes? Program clarity Sequencing clarity Specific data for nudges Targeted messaging Clear contacts for student questions A village to lead the student to the outcome

Select a meta-major or Major Meta-Majors Select a meta-major or Major Program Offerings

CCCApply for Pathways

CCCApply for Pathways Should STEM be spelled out in CCCApply

Questions? Thank you!

Additional Resources Meta-Majors: An Essential First Step on the Path to College Completion (JFF) http://www.jff.org/publications/meta-majors-essential-first-step-path-college-completion How meta-majors guide students toward on-time graduation (EAB) https://www.eab.com/daily-briefing/2016/07/26/how-meta-majors-guide-students-toward-on-time-graduation